An Australian man is suing Twitter for defamation after a tweet wrongly accused him of authoring a hate blog directed at a television personality.
Marieke Hardy, a writer and television identity, used her Twitter account to accuse Joshua Meggitt as the person behind a long-running vitriolic hate blog ââ¬â but the accusation was false and he is now suing Twitter both for her tweet and subsequent retweets by others.
His lawyers yesterday served a legal notice on the San Francisco-based social media company, as the publisher of Hardy's tweet. It is the first lawsuit against Twitter under Australian law.
On Twitter last November, Hardy said: I name and shame my 'anonymous' internet bully. Liberating business! Join me.
The tweet then linked to her blog, which named Mr Meggitt as the author of ranting, hateful articles about her. But the claim was wrong.
Ms Hardy, who has more than 60,000 Twitter followers, has already settled a defamation claim with Mr Meggitt, reportedly for about $AUS15,000.
An Australian internet law expert, Peter Black, said that sites such as Twitter and Facebook could be held responsible for posts by users in Australia.
He said that while US laws provide immunity against liability for an interactive computer service, Australian law provides no such protections.
It is one of the first cases in which the platform ââ¬â in this case Twitter ââ¬â rather than the person that actually made the defamatory comment has been sued, he wrote on The Conversation website.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...lian-man-defamed-in-row-over-secret-blog.html
Perhaps our US laws need to be changed. What are your thoughts on this lawsuit?
Marieke Hardy, a writer and television identity, used her Twitter account to accuse Joshua Meggitt as the person behind a long-running vitriolic hate blog ââ¬â but the accusation was false and he is now suing Twitter both for her tweet and subsequent retweets by others.
His lawyers yesterday served a legal notice on the San Francisco-based social media company, as the publisher of Hardy's tweet. It is the first lawsuit against Twitter under Australian law.
On Twitter last November, Hardy said: I name and shame my 'anonymous' internet bully. Liberating business! Join me.
The tweet then linked to her blog, which named Mr Meggitt as the author of ranting, hateful articles about her. But the claim was wrong.
Ms Hardy, who has more than 60,000 Twitter followers, has already settled a defamation claim with Mr Meggitt, reportedly for about $AUS15,000.
An Australian internet law expert, Peter Black, said that sites such as Twitter and Facebook could be held responsible for posts by users in Australia.
He said that while US laws provide immunity against liability for an interactive computer service, Australian law provides no such protections.
It is one of the first cases in which the platform ââ¬â in this case Twitter ââ¬â rather than the person that actually made the defamatory comment has been sued, he wrote on The Conversation website.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technolo...lian-man-defamed-in-row-over-secret-blog.html
Perhaps our US laws need to be changed. What are your thoughts on this lawsuit?
